Far more often [than asking the question 'Is it true?'] they [children] have asked me: 'Was he good? Was he wicked?' That is, they were far more concerned to get the Right side and the Wrong side clear. For that is a question equally important in History and in Faerie.

Adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine.

We are truth-speakers, we men of Gondor. We boast seldom, and then perform, or die in the attempt. "Not if I found it on the highway would I take it," I said. Even if I were such a man as to desire this thing, and even though I knew not clearly what this thing was when I spoke, still I should take those words as a vow, and be held by them.

Far, far below the deepest delvings of the dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things.

Not everyone who wanders is lost.

The doom lies in yourself, not in your name.

For victory is victory, however small, nor is its worth only from what follows from it.